Industry

Firstar Funds of Milwaukee has filed a proxy statement with the SEC to merge three fund families. The directors of Firstar Funds, Mercantile Mutual Funds, and the Firstar Stellar Funds approved a plan this summer to combine the three fund families to form Firstar Funds, according to the filing.

Putnam Investments of Boston has struck an alliance with a Toronto-based money manager to enable it to pick up the pace of its expansion in the Canadian market.

Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co.'s increased buyout price of Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn., from $12.50 to $15.75 a share, may not have been enough to stop a class-action lawsuit filed against both firms, according to E.F. Goulart, a spokesperson for Phoenix Investment Partners.

Asset management buyers beware. The high premiums that acquirers have been willing to pay for growth-style or publicly-traded firms may soon prove to be too high, as these two brands of asset management firms may soon be out of favor.

American Century Investments of Kansas City, Mo., could land a windfall of 401(k) business as a result of the merger between J.P. Morgan & Co. and Chase Manhattan Corporation, both of New York, said a spokesperson for American Century.

MAXFunds.com of Ann Arbor, Mich., an online mutual fund analysis firm, has acquired the mutual fund information site, Findafund.com of Los Angeles, for an undisclosed price, according to MAXFunds.com. The sites will be combined into one that will provide comprehensive fund coverage, said Rick Baggenstoss, director of marketing at MAXFunds.com.

Credit Suisse Group of Zurich, Switzerland has agreed to purchase Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette of New York for $11.5 billion, or $90 a share, the companies announced last week.

The Bank of New York has agreed to acquire Ivy Asset Management of Garden City, N.Y. for an undisclosed price, Bank of New York announced.

AIM Funds Management of Toronto became Canada's newest foreign-owned mutual fund giant on Aug. 1, with the completion of its takeover of Trimark Financial of Toronto. It hopes to make further market-share gains by offering one of the country's most diverse product lines, introducing new low-fee share classes and expanding its distribution channels.

In spite of the rush to merge or acquire another firm in the money management industry, two-thirds of acquired fund companies failed to exceed their pre-transaction asset growth rates following a sale, according to Cerulli Associates of Boston.